ps. Some girls may like that sort of niceness; I don't."

"Why didn't you tell him to get out?"

"I wanted to see his samples. It is time for us to buy our Christmas
things and I had rather choose them myself, that's all."

"Oh! But Mr. Hamilton or the Captain--I should think--"

"Oh, they might have bought some that we couldn't sell."

"The beauty-boxes, for instance?"

Mary-'Gusta smiled. "Why, yes," she admitted; "perhaps."

"I see. But it was rather an ordeal for you. Do you have to endure much
of that sort of thing?"

"No more than any girl who keeps store, I guess."

At the dinner table that evening Keith referred to his experience as
listener in Hamilton and Company's shop.

"That girl with the queer name," he said, "a niece of those two old
chaps who run the place, I believe she is. Do you know anything about
her, Gertrude?"

Before Mrs. Keith could reply, Edna spoke:

"Ask Sam, Dad," she said, mischievously. "Sam knows about her. He just
adores that store; he spends half his time there."

"Nonsense, Edna!" protested Sam, turning red. "I don't do any such
thing."

"Oh, yes, you do. And you know about Mary-'Gusta too. He says she's a
peach, Daddy."

"Humph!" grunted her brother, indignantly. "Well, she is one. She's
got every girl in your set skinned a mile for looks. But I don't know
anything about her, of course."

Mrs. Keith broke in. "Skinned a mile!" she repeated, with a shudder.
"Sam, what language you do use! Yes, John," she added, addressing her
husband. "I know the girl well. She's pretty and she is sensible. For
a girl who has had no opportunities and has lived all her life here in
South Harniss she is really quite remarkable. Why do you speak of her,
John?"

Mr. Keith related a part of the conversation between Mary-'Gusta and Mr.
Kron.

"She handled the fellow splendidly," he said. "She talked business with
him and she wouldn't let him talk anything else. But it was plain enough
to see that she felt insulted and angry. It seems a pity that a girl
like that should have to put up with that sort of thing. I wonder if her
uncles, old Mr. Hamilton and Captain Shadrach, realize what happens when
they're not about? How would they take it, do you think, if I dropped a
hint?"

Edna laughed. "You would have to be very careful, Daddy," she said. "Mr.
Hamilton and the Captain idolize Mary-'Gusta and she just worships them.
Besides, she isn't really their niece, you know. She is a young lad